But the Biedermeier style, which flourished in Europe between 1815 and 1840, was not exclusive to the middle class. Nor was it limited to furniture. It encompassed textiles, wallpaper, jewelry, ceramics, decorative objects, glassware and other items, all of which shared traits with their wooden counterparts.

"Classic Biedermeier objects have crisp shapes that are pared down to the essentials," says Stein, a research consultant who contributed to a recent Biedermeier exhibition that traveled from Milwaukee to Vienna to Berlin to Paris. "They're functional, but there is also great joy in the materials. And often there's a little humor there, too, in the curves and geometric lines. But there is nothing unnecessary, nothing frivolous. In the glassware, you see incredible colors that come from natural materials. And in the textiles, you'll find wild, modern riotous patterns."

Long associated with the middle class, Biedermeier's origins are being redefined by Stein and other scholars, who argue that the aesthetic began in aristocratic homes and filtered down to the bourgeosie — in much the same way that high-end designs today trickle, one way or another, into Target.

Biedermeier grew out of French and British neoclassicism. In the first half of the 19th century, German countries were welcoming a new generation of royalty, Stein says. "They had gilded, ornamental stuff in public spaces and simpler stiff in private. Placement of furniture begins to be related to function. This is the beginning of the living room."

It was also the beginning of catalog sales. "There began to be makers of furniture and decorative objects who could produce serially," Stein says. "You could order things by mail. Sometimes, you could choose the wood and fabric."

Local collector David Gosselin says that living with the furniture is easy.

"It is the antithesis of ostentation," says Gosselin. "It's free of ornamentation, so that it can be sophisticated through its wood graining and be cozy at the same time."

Gosselin's Montrose home features Biedermeier in nearly every room, including tables, chairs, a desk and even a mantel he salvaged from a pile of burning debris in New Orleans. He cares for each piece himself.

"When you buy an antique of heirloom quality," he says, "you take on the obligation to maintain it as it should be maintained."

Biedermeier style got its name retroactively.

Biedermeier was a fictional character in a German periodical that was popular in the mid-1850s. "They came up with this character, Gottlieb Biedermeier, the God-loving everyman, and created satirical stories about him," Stein says. "It was a term that applied to the grandparents' generation. Initially, it wasn't a positive."

But new generations grew interested in the questions Biedermeier design raised: What is the essence of a bed? A chair? What is necessary and what is not? How is beauty related to form and function?